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Saturday, February 11, 2017

Justice needs to start afresh someplace her abusive ex can’t
find or hurt her and her son anymore. Just her luck to be stranded in Scenic
Falls, Montana where, instead of being faceless people in the big city, they
stick out like sore thumbs. Being so conspicuous and drawing everyone’s
attention, especially that of hot cattle rancher, Hank, means they can’t stay.
No matter how much it feels like home.

Hank was born, raised, and plans to die in Scenic Falls. What
he doesn’t need is to obsess over the city woman who’s come to town and no
doubt would soon move on. Then Justice becomes his live-in cook and bookkeeper
and, despite knowing she has secrets she won’t share, Hank realizes he’ll do
anything to make her stay in the small town, and with him. That is, until
Justice’s past comes calling, threatening everything.

Justice
studied the worn menu. What she really wanted was a nice, juicy, medium-well-done
steak with a side of scrambled eggs. Her stomach groaned with just the thought
of it. She saw the price, fifteen dollars. That wasn’t a lot of money, but her
funds were rapidly depleting. They were still saying at the bed and breakfast
and, at sixty-nine dollars a night for the past two months, had taken up a
hefty chunk of her money. Luckily Abigale provided breakfast every morning and
even though she wasn’t obligated to, cooked dinner every night except the
weekends.

Justice
also had to spend money on new clothes. Well, not new-new, but new to her.
She’d gotten them from a secondhand shop for a bargain, but money was spent
just the same. All in all she only had a little over three thousand dollars
left.

What she
needed was a job.

But a job
meant setting down roots. Which meant supplying her driver’s license and social
security number. Both were a way for Tyler to find her and TJ. She’d known that
this was inevitable, but she was sure that the ten thousand dollars she’d taken
from Tyler’s safe would’ve been enough to support her and TJ a little while
longer. She’d wanted to get the extra five thousand from her own savings
account but waiting until the bank opened in the morning hadn’t been an option
at the time.

If she was
feeling lucky, she could go to the bank here in town and withdrawal money from
her account. But she wasn’t feeling that lucky. Tyler had access to her bank
account and would see on the statement exactly where she’d withdrawn the money
from. Nope. Not an option.

“Um, water
with lemon and a side of toast please.” Her stomach grumbled in protest.
Tonight was not one of the nights when Abigale cooked dinner, but she would
survive until the morning.

“Water and
toast?” Madeline frowned. “That’s not a healthy lunch.”

Justice
stored the menus back in their spot. “I had a large breakfast. Abigale makes
sure of it.”

That
seemed to please Madeline, because the frown dropped from her face. “I can
attest to that. Abbie sure loves to cook breakfast. That’s one of the reasons
she started her B&B in the first place.” Madeline stuffed her notepad in
her pocket. “And of course chocolate milk for the young man here.”

“Yes!” TJ
beamed.

“TJ, don’t
yell. These good people want to eat in peace and quiet.”

“He’s not
bothering anyone,” came a low voice from the booth behind theirs.

That was
the only invitation that TJ needed to pop up from his knees and press his
stomach against the back of his seat to stare at the man. “Hi, my name is TJ.”

The man
adjusted in his seat to look at TJ. “Nice to meet you, sir.” He held out a hand
and shook TJ’s.

“He’s my
son,” Justice interrupted.

The man
tilted his head at her. He had brown hair, with streaks of blond, curling
around his ears. Dark-green eyes that seemed to smile. Full lips and stubble
around his mouth and chin and on his cheeks gave him that rustic look. Like everyone
else in this town, there was a little twang to his accent. And when he smiled
at TJ, two dimples appeared in his cheeks.

“Hank, do
you need anything else?” Madeline asked him.

Hank
released TJ’s hand. “Nope. I’m good. I’m about to head back to work. Been gone
long enough now.”

Justice
could’ve kept her gaze on Hank forever, but she lowered her eyes. That didn’t
matter because his image seemed as though it was burned within her mind.

“I’m
getting chicken nuggets,” TJ explained.

“So I
heard. You like them, huh?”

“Mm mm
mm.” TJ said, while rubbing his stomach.

“That’s
enough now.” Justice said. Even though he’d said TJ wasn’t bothering anyone,
Justice wanted him to mind his business just the same. TJ liked to talk to
everyone about everything and before he started talking about his father and
Brooklyn, Justice wanted him to stop. “Turn around and sit.” She reached into
her bag to retrieve the coloring book and crayons that she’d gotten used to
keeping on her.

“Ma’am, I
said—”

“I know
what you said. But it’s still rude.” She placed the items on the table and TJ
turned and sat. Justice blew out a silent breath. TJ liked to talk, but he
liked to color even more.

Hank got
up from his seat with a red cap in hand. Justice tried not to look at his face.
She talked about rudeness, but she really had been the rude one. He hadn’t done
anything to her and her tone had been less than friendly.

“Good bye,
little man,” he said. “And have a nice day, Miss.”

She still
didn’t look at him. Guilt made her look at his booted feet. “You too.”

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Author Bio:

A. M.
Griffin is a wife who rarely cooks, mother of three, dog owner (and sometimes
dog owned), a daughter, sister, aunt and friend. She’s a hard worker whose two
favorite outlets are reading and writing. She enjoys reading everything from
mystery novels to historical romances and of course fantasy romance. She is a
believer in the unbelievable, open to all possibilities from mermaids in our
oceans and seas, angels in the skies and intelligent life forms in distant
galaxies.